Africare

Africare "works in partnership with African communities to achieve healthy and productive societies. Africare's approach places communities at the center of development activities. Africare believes that only through strong communities can Africa feed itself, appropriately exploit its natural resources, educate, care and protect its children, promote the economic well being of African people and live in peace." Established in 1970. 


 * "In 1970, West Africa was in the midst of one of the most severe droughts in its history. Animals were dying. Crops could not grow. Villagers were fleeing their homes in search of water. Millions of human lives hung in the balance.


 * "Among those providing help — medical aid to the Maine-Soroa Hospital in Diffa, Niger — were 17 American volunteers, led by William O. Kirker, M.D., and Barbara Jean A. Kirker, who named their group "Africare." (The Kirkers themselves had been working in Africa, to improve African health care, since the mid-1960s.)


 * "Eventually, the fledgling Africare needed more support. Diori Hamani, then president of the Republic of Niger, appealed to others in the United States on the effort's behalf. He went on to pose a broader question: Why don't black Americans, whose ancestors came from the continent, respond to the needs in Africa?


 * "It was to C. Payne Lucas, among others, that President Diori Hamani addressed his appeal. Lucas was director of the Peace Corps Office of Returned Volunteers in Washington, D.C. He had served previously in Niger and knew the president from that time. Dialogue ensued. In addition to President Diori Hamani, Kirker and Lucas, other incorporators were the Washington-based Nigerien diplomat Oumarou G. Youssoufou and Joseph C. Kennedy, Ph.D., former Peace Corps director in Sierra Leone."

Founded by C. Payne Lucas and William Kirker.

Senior Staff

 * Julius E. Coles - President
 * Jeannine B. Scott - Senior Vice President
 * Jack Campbell - Vice President of Finance and Management
 * Chinwe Effiong - Director, East/Anglophone West Africa Region
 * Kevin G. Lowther - Director, Southern Africa Region
 * William P. Noble - Director, Francophone West and Central Africa Region
 * Charles DeBose - Director, Office of Health and HIV/AIDS
 * Clarence S. Hall - Deputy Director, Office of Health and HIV/AIDS
 * Harold V. Tarver - Director, Office of Food for Development
 * Jean Denis - Director of Management Information Systems
 * Carolyn W. Gullatt - Director of Human Resources

Directors

 * Honorary Chairman: Nelson R. Mandela
 * Honorary Vice Chair: Maria Walker
 * Chairman: W. Frank Fountain - Senior Vice President, External Affairs and Public Policy, DaimlerChrysler Corporation
 * Vice Chair: Valerie L. Dickson-Horton - Former Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa, U.S. Agency for International Development
 * Treasurer: Larry D. Bailey
 * Secretary: Joseph C. Kennedy
 * Stephen D. Cashin - Chief Executive Officer, Pan African Capital Group, LLC
 * Alexander B. Cummings, Jr. - President, Coca-Cola Africa
 * Alice M. Dear - President, A.M. Dear & Associates
 * Alan Detheridge - Associate Director, The Partnering Initiative, Former Vice President, External Affairs, Shell International Limited
 * William R. Ford - Former President, African Development Foundation
 * James A. Harmon - Chairman, Harmon & Co. LLC
 * Luddy Hayden, Jr. - Manager, International Government Relations, ChevronTexaco Corporation
 * The Hon. George W. Haley - Former U.S. Ambassador to the Gambia
 * Howard F. Jeter - Executive Vice President, GoodWorks International
 * William O. Kirker
 * C. Payne Lucas, Sr.
 * Gay J. McDougall - Executive Director, Global Rights
 * Barbara A. McKinzie - First Vice President, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
 * Philip Pillsbury, Jr.
 * Clyde Richardson - President and CEO, Loriche Publications
 * The Rev. Yvonne K. Seon - Distinguished Visiting Director, Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center, Wright State University
 * Rodney E. Slater - Partner, Patton Boggs LLP, Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation
 * The Hon. Louis W. Sullivan - President Emeritus, Morehouse School of Medicine
 * F. Euclid Walker - Managing Director, Renascent Capital Group
 * J. C. Watts, Jr. - Chairman, J.C. Watts Companies
 * The Hon. Curtin Winsor
 * Howard Wolpe - Director, Africa Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
 * Oumarou G. Youssoufou - Former O.A.U. (African Union) Ambassador to the U.N.

Ex-officio
 * Julius E. Coles - President, Africare

Emeritus Source
 * Donald F. McHenry - Former Chairman, Africare - President, IRC Group; Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy, Georgetown University; Former U.S. Representative to the U.N.

Directors (no longer at Africare)
2005 Annual Report
 * Lauretta J. Bruno - President and Founding Partner, Gramercy Partners, LLC
 * Daniel A. Carp - Former Chairman and Chief Executive, Officer, Eastman Kodak Company
 * Harold E. Doley, Jr. - Founder, President and Chief Executive - Officer, Doley Securities, Inc.; Former U.S. Representative to the African Development Bank
 * James M. Harkless, Esq. - Arbitrator
 * The Rt. Rev. Frederick Calhoun James - AME Church
 * Delano E. Lewis, Sr. - President and Chief Executive Officer, Lewis & Associates; Former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa
 * Judith A. McHale - Former President and Chief Executive, Officer, Discovery Communications, Inc.
 * Percy C. Wilson - President, UATALCO

Select Major Funders

 * Mr and Mrs Peter Ackerman, Albert Kundstadtler Family Foundation, Americares, Care International, Development Alternatives, the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the Institute of International Education, Interaction, MacAuthur Foundation, the NED, the Open Society Institute, Rockefeller Foundation, USAID, Pacifica Radio pdf

Related SourceWatch

 * Carlton A. Masters
 * World Soy Foundation

Contact

 * Web: http://www.africare.org